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Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas — Alex Bowman had a close seat for Sunday’s final-lap frenzy between Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger, so close that he nearly vaulted from third into a place of distinction as the NASCAR Cup Series’ first two-time winner this year.

Instead, Bowman held on to guide a dinged No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet across the line in second place — narrowly missing the win that went to first-timer Chastain, but avoiding the gravel-trap calamity that sidelined Allmendinger at Circuit of The Americas.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

“I mean, I figured they would get rough and aggressive,” Bowman said on pit road post-race. “I tried to race as clean as possible and kind of just let them do their thing and pass both of them. Kind of worked out perfect until the 1 (Chastain) got into the 16 (Allmendinger), and I was along for the ride and limped across the start-finish line on fire. So I don’t know, it was a really good day for us, and it’s been a rough weekend for me — a lot going on. Sometimes things outside the race car aren’t great, and it makes the whole weekend even … it should feel good, but it doesn’t. So I’m just ready to get home, see the pups and move on to next week.”

If there’s another takeaway after putting himself in position for another late-blooming victory, it’s some perspective on how Chastain and Allmendinger raced each other with Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix. Allmendinger said repeatedly that Chastain would have to look himself in the mirror after his moves, without mentioning him by name.

Bowman said he’s had some of his own late-race moves to answer for, alluding to his well-publicized run-in with Denny Hamlin at Martinsville Speedway last fall.

“I’ve been on the other side of it, so I have to live with it, right? Like I talked about at Martinsville, I had to live with that,” Bowman said. “Best advice I have for Ross on that is put it on a T-shirt and sell the hell out of ’em.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas – AJ Allmendinger had a rare road-course weekend double-dip at the Circuit of The Americas within his reach, an opportunity to cheer on consecutive days in Victory Lane at the base of the massive Turn 1 hill.

Instead of the jubilation, a rollicking final combination of corners and a pinball-action series of bumps with Ross Chastain and late-riser Alex Bowman in overtime put his No. 16 Chevrolet off the track and out of contention. Chastain – his former teammate – drove on for his first NASCAR Cup Series victory, Bowman held on for second, and Allmendinger went from the top three to 33rd place in the final rundown.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

Instead of the first-turn hillside as a repeat backdrop after his Saturday Xfinity Series win, Allmendinger’s post-race destination was the infield care center for a cursory check, a battery of compulsory interviews and a consolation hug after all of it from Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice.

“At the end of the day, like I said, you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror. If you’re OK with it, you’re OK with it,” Allmendinger said of Chastain’s tactics. “Every person is different. So it doesn’t matter what I think. We had a shot to win a Cup race. It’s pretty special.”

Allmendinger, a Cup Series part-timer who drives full-time for Kaulig’s Xfinity Series operation, led just two laps in his second Cup start of the season. But much of his day in the EchoPark Grand Prix was spent behind Chastain, his former Kaulig teammate who has since moved on to Trackhouse Racing.

An earlier nudge from Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet had Allmendinger driving his No. 16 Chevy with determination and the gap — .931 seconds at the white flag – shrank to nothing as the final lap wound down with Bowman suddenly lurking in third. Allmendinger sent Chastain wide in Turn 15, and Bowman briefly shot in front when their bumping resumed.

2022 March27 Aj Allmendinger 2 Main Image
Torey Fox | NASCAR Digital Media

Finally, just before Turn 19, a pivotal push from Chastain sent Allmendinger’s car ricocheting off Bowman’s, clearing the way for a breakthrough win for both Chastain and Trackhouse.

WATCH: Final-lap thrills at COTA

Allmendinger’s remarks were short but not sweet on his walk back to the care center, and he returned to his “look yourself in the mirror” theme more than once. It was a refrain borrowed by Rice, who had Chastain in the Kaulig fold for the 2019-20 seasons.

“AJ Allmendinger taught Ross Chastain how to drive the road courses. It’s just that simple,” Rice told NASCAR.com. “Ross, before he came to Kaulig Racing, he’d run around, I don’t know, wherever he ran. AJ Allmendinger spent many, many hours with him and helped him road-race. And at some point, you think, OK, maybe think about that. It’s fine, the bump and run, but don’t put people in the sand.

“You know, AJ don’t run for points over here, and we come for trophies and that’s what we do. So it is what it is. Congratulations to Trackhouse on their first win. We won last year at Indy in like our seventh, eighth race, something like that, so it’s pretty cool to get your first win. You know, we’re doing it from ground up and that guy right there is making us good.”

Chastain’s initial mirror look seemed OK: “I didn’t draw it up that way in my head, but, yeah, I did what I did. I stand by it.” Still, Chastain conceded that any mending of fences from a previous run-in with Allmendinger had probably soured.

“No, I don’t race anybody any different. I’ve cost AJ a win at Daytona in the Xfinity Series, and he was obviously a quarter-mile away from winning here. He has taught me a lot, and I’m sure that our friendship will hurt for this,” Chastain said. “I feel like I had started to win some of his friendship back, and just being nice to each other when you see each other. It took a while.

“I hate that because I’ve lived through that in my career for 12th place in Xfinity. I’ve fought, and I’ve roughed people up and gotten into people. … It’s not lost on me that I make some of the same mistakes. It’s just staring down a Cup Series win. I just couldn’t let that go.”

Allmendinger is scheduled for a total of 16 Cup Series races this year in the No. 16 Chevrolet that he’ll share with fellow Xfinity regulars Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric. The next of those comes next Sunday, a chance for redemption at Richmond Raceway.

“It is what it is. You can’t change the result,” Allmendinger said. “We had a shot to win a Cup race. It’s pretty badass. Kaulig Racing almost swept a weekend, and that’s, at the end of the day, how can you be mad about that? So, the sport knows that Matt Kaulig is all about it, and we’ll keep putting it on the line every time we got a chance to win a race.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Road-course king Chase Elliott never appeared to be a true threat to win Sunday at Circuit of The Americas, but it was still an eventful day for the series point leader — in more ways than one.

Elliott notched his first top-five finish of the year, and he also was involved in the race’s first true incident with two-time series champion Kyle Busch.

The first spin of the race came when Elliott knocked Busch around in Turn 12. Busch was running in 13th place and, after collecting his car in the gravel, was able to continue on — and he would finish in 28th place after a series of late-race incidents shuffled him back from the top five.

“I messed up,” Elliott said. “I got crossed up in the braking zone and hit him. Obviously, we were racing for last and probably weren’t even racing for stage points and I think he knows me better than that. But yeah, that was completely on me … and my fault.”

RELATED: Full race results

The Hendrick Motorsports driver is already third on the all-time wins list for road-course races and entered Sunday’s race as the defending race winner. He never led, but capitalized on the late-race theatrics between Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger and fellow Hendrick driver Alex Bowman to drive his No. 9 Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish.

The result allows Elliott to stretch his points lead to 13 points ahead of second-place Ryan Blaney. And although the fourth-place run was Elliott’s best of the year, he does have a series-leading four top-10 finishes.

“Yeah, I didn’t really have to do anything,” Elliott said of the closing laps. “They just kind of wrecked and they were out of the way, so I just kind of ran it on the road and I got a free couple of positions. I will take it.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

AUSTIN, Texas — In exactly the kind of thrilling final-lap, final-turn high-action finish NASCAR has so often provided on road courses, Ross Chastain persevered in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas — the sixth different winner this season.

Chastain really had to earn this one — coming out on the right end of a frantic, four lead-change, two-lap final overtime. And he did — moving veteran AJ Allmendinger and Alex Bowman in the final series of turns on the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit to take not only his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series but also give his Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks his first win as a new owner in stock car’s big leagues.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

After grabbing the position in the final corner, Chastain raced off to a 1.331-second victory over Hendrick Motorsports driver Bowman, who unlike Allmendinger, was able to recover from the last-lap contact and continue to the checkered flag. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five.

Chastain’s family owns a watermelon farm in tiny, rural Alva, Florida and as he has famously done with past victories in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity Series, Chastain stood on top of his winning car, the No.1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, and dropped a watermelon to the track, crushing it on the ground as his team and fans exploded in cheers.

“It’s insane to go up against some of the best and I know he’s (Allmendinger) going to be upset with me, but we race hard, both of us,” said Chastain, who was runner-up in the last two NASCAR Cup Series races coming to Austin.

“But when it comes to this Cup win, I can’t let that go down without a fight.”

Allmendinger, who actually was a NASCAR Xfinity Series teammate with Chastain two years ago, was understandably crushed as well after the race. He finished 33rd.

“We just needed two more corners,” said Allmendinger, who also went door-to-door in a tight on-track battle with Chastain in winning Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at COTA.

“Everybody’s got to be comfortable with the move they make and look in the mirror,” Allmendinger told FOX Sports. “Everybody’s different on what they view, and you can’t judge a person for that.

“So, at the end of the day, I’m just proud of Kaulig Racing for bringing such a fast Action Industry Chevrolet. We started at the back, drove to the front and if we had had a long run (at the end) it would have been game over. Nobody would have touched me.”

Chastain led a race-high 31 of the 69 laps — one of nine leaders in the series’ first road-course test with the Next Gen car. The race produced a Cup road-course record of 30 green-flag passes for the lead.

And the 29-year-old Floridian became the 12th consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race winner under the age of 30 and the third first-time winner this season.

RELATED: Kurt Busch, Larson, Logano crash | Kyle Busch spins after contact with Elliott

It was as equally a thrilling maiden win for the former NASCAR and sportscar driver Marks, who was interviewed during the FOX telecast just before the final restart, revealing with a smile that “It’s a little easier to be a driver of one these things than to watch.”

“It seemed like a real tall order when I dreamt this thing up,” Marks said. “But every man and woman that’s trusted the vision and committed to Trackhouse and worked so hard owns a piece of this victory.

“I’m so happy for everybody. Everybody believed in this, and I can’t wait for next week.”

And, he reported with a grin, he spoke with the team’s co-owner, music superstar Pitbull who promised he also was smashing a watermelon over his head and drinking champagne.

The pole-winner Ryan Blaney finished sixth, followed by Martin Truex Jr, Austin Cindric, Erik Jones, and Austin Dillon rounding out the top 10.

With that fourth-place finish, Elliott now holds a 13-point advantage on Blaney heading into next weekend’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage is complete. There were no issues, making Chastain’s race victory official.

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Action Network specializes in providing sports betting insights/analytics and is a content partner with NASCAR. Check out more NASCAR betting analysis here.

Practice and qualifying for today’s NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) produced some surprising results.

Heavy favorites Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson both failed to make the final round of qualifying. Additionally, neither driver posted a practice time inside the top 15.

Books have been slow to adjust, with Elliott and Larson still heavily favored.

The Action Network’s NASCAR Bet Center shows that both drivers are +500 or shorter to win all across the industry.

These short odds mean several betting opportunities arise across a range of markets.

That’s exactly the angle I’m looking for with today’s best NASCAR bets for COTA.

NASCAR Picks & Predictions for COTA

*Odds as of Sunday morning

A.J. Allmendinger Top Chevy (+1400)

Allmendinger is a two-time Cup winner at road courses. He handily won the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, and there’s reason to believe he’s severely undervalued for today’s race.

The Next Gen car was designed with road-course racing in mind. A highly skilled road racer like Allmendinger should benefit.

A new car may also hinder the performances of Elliott and Larson relative to the field as they adapt to a new car and setup.

Although Allmendinger had a slow qualifying lap, he was fast in practice.

However, books overreacted to the qualifying lap.

Allmendinger’s odds to win are longer compared to earlier in the week. That applies to other markets as well.

The combination of shorter odds on Elliott and Larson with longer odds on Allmendinger creates value in the top Chevy market.

Allmendinger finished as top Chevy three times in 11 road course races with JTG Daugherty Racing. Last year with Kaulig Racing he finished as top Chevy once in five tries.

These 14-1 odds at BetMGM are just way too long for a driver of his skill set.

My model has Allmendinger finishing as the top Chevy 12% of the time. I’m comfortable betting him down to 9-1.

Ford Winning Manufacturer (+310)

DraftKings is one of several books that hasn’t budged much on Elliott and Larson. At DraftKings, they are +300 and +400, respectively.

That’s caused DraftKings to price Chevrolet as -160 favorite to win the race.

In turn, Ford and Toyota are both +310 to win.

I really like the Ford stable, especially with Team Penske’s exceptionally strong showing in practice and qualifying.

Ford drivers make up 40% of the top 10 in the starting lineup.

That doesn’t even include Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe, or former series champion Kevin Harvick.

With six legitimate threats to run near the front, as well as a plethora of other drivers with much longer shots of winning, Ford should not be priced this long.

My model has Ford pegged at 32% to win the race. That’s well over the 24.4% implied odds we’re getting at this price.

Bottom line, I think Ford wins more than a quarter of the time. I’d bet this down to +250.

Posted on by Bozi Tatarevic

Editor’s note: Bozi Tatarevic is a professional racing mechanic and pit crew member. He will provide technical analysis for NASCAR.com throughout the 2022 season.

The return of NASCAR to Circuit of The Americas is almost like a debut. Not only is the Next Gen car making its road-course debut, but it is also a much different weather scenario considering the wet conditions during the races last year and the repaving that has happened since then. We saw drivers getting acquainted with the track and the setups Saturday, with some notable spins and brake lockups in Cup Series practice and qualifying, along with another show of the durability of the Next Gen car.

Ryan Blaney spun during a practice session and ended up in the tire barrier with some apparent interaction with the left rear corner of his car. The composite body panels popped back into place as soon as he drove away from the scene and his team determined that there were no suspension issues after they inspected the damage and sent him back out on track.

He eventually took that No. 12 Ford Mustang and put in on the Busch Light Pole for Sunday’s race. The composite rear bumper cover assembly combined with the foam that is installed underneath was able to absorb the energy of that impact with the tire barriers without causing further damage to the car.

Joey Hand was not quite as lucky with his No. 15 Ford Mustang as he locked up his right front tire and ended up with some rubber delamination, which resulted in a layer of rubber being flung into the fender well and breaking off the fender — along with damage to the hood and front bumper.

Dylan Buell | Getty Images
Dylan Buell | Getty Images

Hand was not able to qualify, but his Rick Ware Racing crew got to work immediately and bolted on new composite body pieces such as the fender and front bumper cover, along with other internal pieces like the closeout panel that sits inside the fender.

The nature of the composite panels being able to bolt on individually allows for quicker repairs, as we noted earlier this year, and the team was seen applying vinyl on the reassembled car less than four hours after the initial damage on track occurred.

Teams are still learning more about the Next Gen car. Not only are they able to make repairs quickly when necessary, but they are also optimizing on the areas where they can do some development.

As we noted earlier this week, new rules have been put in place for the windshield wiper assemblies. While many teams are running fairly standard windshield wiper motors like the Bosch Motorsport WPA, it was apparent that the wiper blade assemblies were being explored as an area to optimize on the aerodynamics of the cars with some of the assemblies being built to what appeared to be the maximum size allowed in the rule book.

The wipers are unlikely to get used for their primary purpose Sunday, but fans and drivers will both be happy to see them sit idly by and enjoy the first road course action of the season in the dry.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

For the first time on a race weekend, we saw what the Next Gen car looked like on a road course. It’s blisteringly fast through the corners and can turn on a dime, as the car was developed to handle well when turning left and right. As for fantasy players, there were a few drivers who entered the weekend as a race favorite that struggled in either practice or qualifying. Among them were AJ Allmendinger (will start 20th) and William Byron (24th).

FANTASY LIVE: Set your lineups now!

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Chase Elliott
Starter 2: Austin Cindric
Starter 3: AJ Allmendinger
Starter 4: Tyler Reddick
Starter 5: Daniel Suárez
Garage pick: Chase Briscoe

NEXT IN LINE: Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell and Kurt Busch

RISING: Earlier this week, Daniel Suárez stated he thought one of his best shots of winning a race this season would come at COTA. He wasn’t kidding. The No. 99 Chevrolet was second in practice (quickest of Group B) and turned the second-quickest lap in qualifying, just .026 seconds off the pole.

MORE: Full recap for practice, qualifying

Last year, Tyler Reddick proved he could run well on road courses, earning three top-10 finishes, including a runner-up result in the series’ most recent outing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. When testing the Next Gen at the ROVAL, Reddick was always near the top of the speed chart. Entering the weekend, my theory was to hang low on Reddick and save him for later in the regular season, given he’s been fast each race this year. Not now. The No. 8 car will start fourth, and spoiler: he’s my pick to win the race.

FALLING: Towards the end of the Gen 6’s tenure, Hendrick Motorsports had a grip on road courses. On Saturday, the organization looked spotty, however, as only Alex Bowman cracked the top 10 in qualifying. That said, Chase Elliott will start 12th and Kyle Larson is right behind him in 13th. William Byron was a disappointing 24th. Until Elliott misses it on a road course, however, he will be in my lineup. I could understand saving him, though, for races that come later in the season.

Allmendinger looked good in practice, ranking eighth. Qualifying was a different story as the No. 16 team will have to come from midpack. That isn’t too concerning, though, as Allmendinger raced in the middle of the pack for much of the event at Indianapolis last August and still won.

FEATURED MATCHUPS

AJ Allmendinger vs. Chase Elliott: I still like Elliott here, though Allmendinger’s familiarity with sports cars could help. The No. 16 car had a poor qualifying lap and will start the race having to gain track position.

William Byron vs. Kyle Larson: Based on recent success at road courses, the edge has got to go to Larson’s No. 5 car. However, as noted above, I expected more from both cars in practice and qualifying.

Austin Cindric vs. Martin Truex Jr.: This is the easiest of the four matchups, Cindric. While Truex has four road course wins in the Cup Series, the No. 19 Toyota looked a touch off from Cindric’s No. 2 Ford on Saturday. But Cindric did spin in qualifying, so anything is possible.

Kyle Busch vs. Denny Hamlin: After his qualifying lap, Kyle Busch was none-too-pleased, cussing on his team’s radio. These Joe Gibbs Racing drivers are fairly even on road courses throughout their careers, but I give a small advantage to Busch because he got additional laps in the Truck Series race on Saturday at a relatively new track to the Cup circuit.

Posted on by Zack Albert

AUSTIN, Texas — The first Dash 4 Cash field on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is set, and it has a familiar feel to it — mainly since the team that made a clean sweep of the four-race bonus program last year is positioned for another strong opening bid.

JR Motorsports teammates Noah Gragson and Sam Mayer finished fourth and fifth, respectively, Saturday at the Circuit of The Americas, joining race-winner AJ Allmendinger and runner-up Austin Hill in the four-driver field for next weekend’s Dash 4 Cash opener at Richmond Raceway. Saturday’s Pit Boss 250 served as a qualifier for the annual incentive program, and that quartet made up the top finishers among eligible Xfinity Series regulars. (Cup Series regular Cole Custer was third.)

RELATED: Official results | Dash 4 Cash overview

Gragson claimed the $100,000 bonus three times last year, and JRM teammate Josh Berry netted the other. Gragson enters Richmond as the series points leader, with an unmatched five top-five results in six races this season.

“I think today, this is one of my I guess worst road courses, and we put in a lot of hard work over the wintertime and this weekend, trying to be better and felt like we executed well as a team and got a lot of momentum with just the start of this year,” Gragson said. “We’re just going to try to keep going. We’ve had success at Richmond and Martinsville, the two Dash 4 Cash races up first, and hopefully we can go have a solid day next weekend.”

Allmendinger was dominant in leading 27 of 46 laps, and Hill also had a wide gap over his nearest pursuers at the end. The JRM duo, however, had a more adventurous route to those prized spots in the running for the Richmond payday. Gragson fought through illness — ” definitely didn’t feel up to par, but never quit” — and drove on after an unfortunate bump-up with teammate Justin Allgaier, who limped to 33rd place after battling transmission woes.

“It’s not intentional by any means,” Gragson explained post-race. “I hate it for those guys, but you know, I saw a hole and I was there, and he was going for the same spot, trying to cross whoever it was over and just got collected together. You don’t want to get into teammates, definitely not intentional and hate it for them, but we’ll keep our heads up on the 9 team and keep working hard.”

Mayer — in his first full Xfinity Series season — made the most of his first opportunity at Dash 4 Cash eligibility, converting a last-minute move to get into the Richmond field. He tracked down and bypassed Myatt Snider after a hard-fought contest for fifth in the final lap.

“I was really determined to get that fifth place because I wanted another top five on my resume,” said Mayer, whose only other Xfinity top five was a fourth at Martinsville last fall. “I had to run the 31 (Snider) down, and we battled for like the last third of a lap, side by side pretty much the whole time. It was actually pretty cool, it was fun racing hard, racing clean, we’re still cool obviously. I got into him a little bit in the last corner and just shoved him up a little bit to get that run. But it was good, hard racing. Obviously, I wanted that top five, and I’ll do anything to take it.”

The effort marked a bright spot in what’s been a trying season for the 18-year-old driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet. Aside from a solid sixth-place run last month at Auto Club Speedway, Mayer’s other four finishes had fallen outside the top 20. Saturday’s outcome provided him with both a four-position rise to ninth in the Xfinity standings and a much-needed morale boost.

“The look on my face can say it all really,” said a beaming Mayer from pit road. “We were in such a hole going into this one, and not by anything we did on our fault. It’s just things happen in racing and you can’t do anything about it. We were in a pretty deep hole, but we did a really good job of digging out of it today, and obviously we have a lot more digging to do, but this is a fantastic start.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

AUSTIN, Texas — AJ Allmendinger was fast and agile when he needed to be Saturday afternoon negotiating Circuit of The Americas and reminding the field just why he’s considered one of NASCAR’s road-course superstars.

Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet took the checkered flag by 2.039 seconds over Austin Hill’s No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the first road-course race of the year. It was the 40-year-old veteran’s first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season and 11th of his career. He has seven road-course wins on six different tracks (series high).

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

He led early and he led late, just when he needed to, holding off the field on two dicey restarts and controlling the race the final 14 laps en route to the checkered flag.

NASCAR Cup Series regular Cole Custer turned in an inspired comeback from a midrace pit road speeding penalty to finish third. JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson was fourth — his fifth top-five finish this season. Gragson’s teammate Sam Mayer finished fifth.

With their work, Allmendinger, Hill, Gragson and Mayer are now eligible to win a $100,000 bonus next week in the Dash 4 Cash sweepstakes opener at Richmond Raceway. The top finishing driver among them in the ToyotaCare 250 will take the check, courtesy of sponsor Comcast.

RELATED: Dash 4 Cash explained | Every Dash 4 Cash winner

“I told myself yesterday, I was not happy with where I put ourselves,” said Allmendinger, who qualified fourth.

“Honestly, all these men and women here at Kaulig Racing between the Cup side of it and the Xfinity side of it, they don’t’ sleep during the week, they’re busting their tales and that’s why I’m so fricking hard on myself sometimes because they deserve to win more than anybody here. And I just want to do it for them. Thankfully, we got it done today.”

And it wasn’t easy. Pole-winner Ty Gibbs and fellow NASCAR Cup Series drivers Ross Chastain and Custer joined Allmendinger at the front of the field for most of the early going. Gibbs and Chastain exchanged the lead with Allmendinger, but both ultimately suffered setbacks during the 46-lap race around the 3.41-mile, 20-turn circuit.

Gibbs’ Toyota suffered a flat tire and put him well back in the field (36th place) after he was forced to pit during a green-flag run. He recovered to finish 15th. Chastain ran among the front pack all the way until the end of the race when he was collected on the final restart with seven laps remaining and finished 17th.

Myatt Snider finished sixth in a final-lap duel with Mayer. Brett Moffitt finished seventh with Jade Buford, Miguel Paludo and Sheldon Creed — who won the pole position for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race earlier in the day — rounding out the top 10.

The runner-up Hill was especially encouraged because he was able to keep Allmendinger honest in the closing laps.

“All in all, it was a solid effort for our Global Chevy Camaro,” Hill said, adding, “I’ve always felt like I could get around road courses. I felt like I proved it last year in the trucks winning at Watkins Glen and it just kind of build the momentum and the confidence going forward into this year that when we come to road courses, we can get the job done.”

With the showing at COTA, fourth-place finisher Gragson holds a single-point lead over Allmendinger in the Xfinity Series driver standings with Gibbs third, 31 points back.

The Xfinity Series’ next race is Saturday, April 2 at Richmond Raceway (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection in the NASCAR Xfinity Series garage revealed no issues, validating Allmendinger’s victory.